tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91967202084679070732024-03-14T05:52:44.289-04:00Boomer AngstBy Paul BriandPaul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.comBlogger205125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-85724817298524779432015-10-21T13:20:00.000-04:002015-10-21T13:20:02.013-04:00Is there a better way to determine if Social Security benefits should increase?Social Security recipients won’t be getting a cost of living increase in their benefits next year.
That’s led to some grumbling about how the price of everything seems to be going up but benefits aren’t going up.
It’s also led to a discussion about a better way to calculate cost of living adjustments (COLA) whether they should go up or not.
That discussion centers on the Consumer Price Index (Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-92231548031288802482015-09-09T10:12:00.001-04:002015-09-09T10:12:38.303-04:00Some Grandparents Day advice for care givers
National Grandparents Day is Sunday, Sept. 13, and it will mean different things to different people, depending on your circumstances.For some, it means taking care of a grandparent. Fernando Gutierrez, bioethicist and patient advocate of Ethics 4 Healthcare, has some tips on care he offered in a recent media release::Take care of yourselfBeing the care taker can be a truly gratifying Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-72887860884315250472015-08-29T19:31:00.000-04:002015-08-29T19:31:23.881-04:00Expert warns that long-term care is great unfunded liability
Paul Forte, CEO of LTC Partners, is arecognized expert on long-term care.
An internationally known expert on long-term care is sounding the warning that costs associated with that care -- in particular for aging Baby Boomers -- is “the single greatest unfunded liability most families will face.”The warning comes from Paul Forte, chief executive officer of LTC Partners, headquartered in New Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-34655171210750118572015-01-21T11:35:00.000-05:002015-01-21T11:35:05.690-05:00In love - and in hate - with my hearing aidsI am now wearing hearing aids. And I love them. And I hate them.
I love the fact that I can now hear and understand my wife Jane, a low talker, in the parlance of Jerry Seinfeld.
I love that I don’t have to crank the television volume up to astounding levels that frighten women and children and animals.
I love the fact that I can better understand the soft, sweet voice of my 3-year-old Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-21209928023348797642014-08-11T16:26:00.000-04:002014-08-11T16:26:28.119-04:00Wired up and ready to go
FitBit and Timex Ironman on my left, Road ID and Polarheart strap readout on my right. Hmmm, clowns to the leftof me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
When I prepared to go for a run this morning, I strapped a heart monitor around my chest, the heart monitor readout and a Road ID bracelet on my right wrist, a Timex Ironman watch and a FitBit Flex on my left wrist.
Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-32747124032590394872014-07-20T15:12:00.000-04:002014-07-20T15:12:11.161-04:00My history of PDS: Public Displays of Singing
I freely admit to PDA -- Public Displays of Affection -- with my wife Jane.I am more prone, however, to PDS -- Public Displays of Singing.
Sometimes I wonder in my third act of careers (currently I’m in Act II as a freelance writer after a long Act I career in newspapers) whether to perform as a singer at whatever local bars and restaurants would have me and my band, which consists of MarthaPaul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-6930107460470060582014-06-27T14:16:00.000-04:002014-06-27T14:16:39.956-04:0061 as a number, not an age
Here’s the thing about turning 61: It’s an age that either defines you or you define it.
I’m trying my best to define it, so I consider it a number, not a state of mind.
It doesn’t matter that I’m a year from being able to collect Social Security. It doesn’t matter that I’m a year closer to being eligible for Medicare. It doesn’t matter that I’m inching so much closer to that “senior citizenPaul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-48643146013824766782014-05-02T13:37:00.000-04:002014-05-02T13:37:03.919-04:00My homeward bound life as a hobo
This hobo's primary modeof transportation.
Since January, I’ve become a bit of a hobo.
I’m slightly better dressed than your average hobo, and I do have steady income, but I’ve been riding the rails - and buses and planes and cars - at least twice a month to travel hither and yon.
The image of hobos -- as the homeless vagabonds of the 1930s who hopped boxcars to get from place to place -- Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-75800326733524656442014-03-18T12:51:00.000-04:002014-03-18T12:51:25.172-04:00The bucket list: A to-do list for the rest of your life
Me on the right with, from left, wife Jane, son David, anddaughter Elizabeth at Breckenridge in Colorado.
I’m goal driven, so the idea of a bucket list as I sojourn through my 60s is a good thing.
It’s like a to-do for the rest of my life, but on a grander, wider scale than the to-do lists that occupy my current working retired years.
I recently checked off a bucket list item that’s been at Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-76404938484528321862014-01-14T11:14:00.000-05:002014-01-14T11:15:32.397-05:00A status update that requires explanation
Facebook asks: “What’s on your mind?”
Here is one status update that requires explanation, a bit more than what I might usually devote to a Facebook post.
The update basically has to do with the fact that I’m writing this in South Bend, Ind., preparing to return to Durham, N.H., in a couple of days.
This will be a pattern that will repeat itself in the years ahead because my wife, Jane Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-72426359770787352062013-12-08T16:39:00.000-05:002013-12-08T16:39:01.844-05:00Air Force ‘mob’ is my Christmas MomentIf you’ve read my musings for any length of time, you know that each year I anticipate the Christmas Moment as the holiday approaches.
The Moment is when I know I’m in the spirit of Christmas - of family, of belonging, of renewal.
Some years, such as last year, I was concerned that it might not arrive at all. But, as always and as reliably as the North Star, it did.
But this year, as of right Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-44934857248838756612013-11-22T08:02:00.000-05:002013-11-22T08:02:08.026-05:00JFK touchstone will fade with Baby BoomersIt is a touchstone question of Baby Boomers: Where were you when you heard that John F. Kennedy had been shot?
With the eventual passing of the Baby Boomers, however, the question will be irrelevant to subsequent generations.
The assassination of President Kennedy 50 years ago today in Dallas, Texas, is an event that ties Baby Boomers to their parents, the members of the Greatest Generation.
Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-30976272173214759382013-11-02T12:15:00.000-04:002013-11-02T12:15:03.785-04:00Of two minds when it comes to Red Sox championships
#FeartheBeard Red Sox beard.
In keeping with a Gemini personality, I’m of two minds when it comes to Red Sox World Series championships.
I can’t decide, if I were to choose, which is most significant to me: 2004 or 2013. I don’t put 2007 into the mix because, after 2004, even as wonderful as it was, it was more of an afterthought, almost a foregone conclusion.
But there is drama and personalPaul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-32610528664101973492013-10-28T14:21:00.000-04:002013-10-28T14:21:47.561-04:00The revenge of technology
I am convinced that certain mechanical and technical products have a soul, or, lacking a soul, they at least have a mean streak.
I think cars know when they are about to be replaced.
I think computers know when they are about to be replaced.
The jilted Gateway laptop.
I have memories of cars - a ‘67 Rambler Ambassador, a ‘76 Dodge Dart, a string of Volvo sedans, a string of Honda Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-51170644224250229852013-10-16T08:16:00.000-04:002013-10-16T08:16:58.545-04:00The yin and yang of being a grandparent
Rylin applying pretend suntan
lotion on my face.
I love my granddaughter Rylin, who’s now just short of 2 years old.
Who wouldn’t love the smiles, the laughs, the hand-holding, the cuddling and the smooches that this little girl gives?
I recently caught up with Rylin, her mom Kelsey and my wife Jane at a small farm up the road from the house so that we could see the farm animals and pick Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-52635068933229022502013-09-17T15:17:00.000-04:002013-09-17T15:17:57.678-04:00I need a book-hoarding intervention
It’s time to come to grips with the half-read and unread books stacked up on my nightstand and in my nightstand drawer.
Oh, and we should probably talk about what’s stacked up in my Nook e-reader, too.
I’ve always been a bit of a two-timer when it comes to my reading. Especially during the summer, I’ll have one book for my bed and another for a trip to the beach. Or I’ll be reading one print Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-36953853488382258762013-09-08T11:22:00.001-04:002013-09-08T11:22:34.706-04:00Life hits the gas pedalLife comes at you pretty fast sometimes.
I don’t believe for a minute the notion that everything slows down as you age into your senior years.
Which is fine by me. I'd rather have exciting than dull, adventure than commonplace, an unexpected future than repetition of the past.
A new grandson, my daughter's first wedding anniversary, the death of a friend and other events have collided in the Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-91120809264032988772013-08-21T10:57:00.000-04:002013-08-21T10:57:06.081-04:00Control 60 or be controlled by it
Here’s the thing about 60: You control it, or it controls you.
That’s pretty much the consensus of my fellow members of the Oswego Catholic High School Class of 1971, who gathered in the city hard on Lake Ontario recently to collectively celebrate our 60th birthday.
I’m happy to report, on behalf of the OCHS Class of ‘71, that we are controlling 60 better than it is controlling us.
We’re Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-57346860408336285752013-08-13T11:49:00.002-04:002013-08-13T11:49:59.279-04:00A word about Boomer AngstOver the last couple of weeks I’ve heard from friends about my Boomer Angst lapse.
They said they missed the weekly musings, and were curious why my postings had dropped off so dramatically..
I have a lot of excuses, but no good reasons.
My excuses were bound by artificial boundaries that prevented me from getting out of my own way when it came to writing.
I felt I was bounded by a weekly Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-18578722041232794132013-08-12T10:16:00.000-04:002013-08-12T10:16:12.242-04:00When texts and Facebook aren’t enough
I needed some face time with my children.
It happens sometimes - phone calls, texts, Facebook updates and Instagram photos aren't enough.
Elizabeth and David, all growed up
Even though they're grown, I need to see them, to have some hug time. I need to see them as they talk about their jobs and Elizabeth's efforts with husband John to buy a house and the fact that David is moving into Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-8542820715226206382013-04-26T13:09:00.000-04:002013-04-26T13:09:32.615-04:00Too much sitting on my lazy angst
I’ve been a bad, bad Boomer about my angst.
I haven’t written in this space for weeks.
I can chalk it up to a number of factors: being busy with other things, both professional and personal, and being just plain lazy about getting these words on paper (or words online, as the case may be).
I’ve learned, in the almost five years since I retired from my newspaper job, that my priorities about Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-6671438959733063622013-02-01T14:32:00.001-05:002013-02-01T14:33:04.856-05:00May the best chef win, which he did
David and me during the throwdown.
My son David and I had a kitchen throwdown last weekend.
Family was in town for my granddaughter Rylin’s christening, and I wanted to serve something that would appeal to the crowd we anticipated for dinner on Saturday night.
Cooking, especially for family gatherings, has become one of my great loves as a Baby Boomer empty nester.
It’s feeding the nest Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-35405543293468881232013-01-18T07:37:00.001-05:002013-01-18T07:37:44.131-05:00Going 60 in 20132013 is my 60th year.Over the hill? Hell, I heard that at 40, so I’m not sure what that makes 60.Going downhill fast?Well, put me on my skis and I’d be glad to go downhill fast. I still can and will for as long as possible (as long as there aren’t any moguls involved).I have a lot of company in this transition to 60. My Oswego Catholic High School class of 1971 will, in fact, celebrate 60 as a Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-68928928793373390472012-12-21T14:31:00.001-05:002012-12-21T14:31:50.813-05:00A harder wait for the Christmas moment
It’s that time of year when I wait for the Christmas moment that defines the meaning of rebirth, renewal and hope.
Frankly, given recent events, the moment might be harder to come by. And, rather than wait for it to come, I might have to go in search of it this year.
My Christmas season doesn’t start until the Advent season, no matter how hard advertisers try to push Christmas on us so soon Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9196720208467907073.post-35390064927827146402012-11-16T14:55:00.000-05:002012-11-16T14:55:29.684-05:00Born free: Returning my yard to the wild
I’m slowly but surely letting my lawn go back to nature.
Which means, eventually, the yard will have less grass that I have to mow and more nature that I can just sit back and admire.
When I lived in the suburbs, an expansive green, trimmed, weed-free yard was important. It was as much of a symbol of a successful middle-class life as the two cars and the two children. It meant that I had Paul Briandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252687041785829672noreply@blogger.com0